¬ just serendipity 🍀 (not just serendipity)

Filling in the gaps of the internet by Evan Hahn:

Here’s a small philosophy I have about the internet:

I believe that it’s my duty to publish the answer to previously-unanswered questions. That way, the next person who comes along has an easier time.

Hell yes!

For example, I was once trying to figure out how to skip the first line of a CSV file in Python. When I did a web search for “python skip first line of CSV”, I couldn’t find the answer.

After a few minutes, I figured it out myself. Then, I wrote a quick blog post explaining my solution…and now it’s one of the most popular posts on my site! Even though the post only took a few minutes to write, it’s been one of my most viewed over the last decade, (presumably) because so many people are trying to do the exact same thing.

Hell yes!

Of course, this is a guideline, not a rule. Sometimes I don’t feel very confident in my answer and don’t want to publish bogus information. Sometimes I’m busy and don’t have time for a writeup, especially for more complex stuff. And sometimes, nobody cares—how to compute a CRC32 checksum in Crystal has not been a big hit; I might have wasted my time with that one.

And fair enough.

Time is limited, after all.